Your Opinion: Vocal minority pushing climate resolution

Nelson Otto

Jefferson City

Dear Editor:

I wanted to thank Jeff Holzem's LTE concerning the Citizen's Climate Lobby (CCL). It basically proves a previous LTE criticizing CCL correct. A total of 490 volunteers out of an estimated total of over 166,259 citizens of both Columbia and Jefferson City, that comes up to roughly 0.295 percent of the population. A fraction of a 1 percent is writing letters to the editors and members of Congress urging them to support HR 763. A fraction of a percent is telling our members of Congress that there is overwhelming support for a carbon tax dividend in Central Missouri.

There are those that oppose this tax and other CO2 mitigation initiatives but they don't speak out or can't speak out because of fear of the repercussions. I have friends that have told me to be careful, they will come after you. I can understand their fear with Bill Ney wanting to jail climate skeptics. Al Gore said in 2015 that "deniers deserve to be punished." A journalist and columnist for the U.K. Times Ed Conway who wrote "Unlike most other such diseases, it (coronavirus) kills mostly the old who, let's face it, are more likely to be climate skeptics." Robert Kennedy calling for deniers to be jailed. Cartoons in the NY Times depicting deniers being stabbed in the chest with icicles. There are reports of people losing their careers because they are climate realists. There are blacklists on the internet. So it is up to the rest of us, the people they claim have no right to speak because we don't have a degree but actually we have the most to lose from thoughtless CO2 mitigation schemes. So make sure your voice is heard because if you don't, the 0.295 percent is working hard to make sure they are heard.